[18.22] The Phoenix Mission and its Current Landing Site options

Phoenix is the 2007 Mars Scout program mission that will
send a lander and suite of instruments to study the north
polar region on Mars. Central goals for the Phoenix mission
are to study the recent history of water as written into the
high latitude soils and to search for habitable zones. In
order to do this, Phoenix carries a comprehensive suite of
seven instruments. This suite includes 3 cameras, an optical
microscope and an atomic-force microscope, allowing imaging
at spatial scales ranging from kms, for large scale
geomorphological studies, to microns, for examining single
grain sizes and shapes. Phoenix also has a meteorology
suite, which includes atmospheric temperature measurements
at 3 levels, atmospheric pressure, and an upward-looking
lidar, for dust and water-ice cloud detection. A robotic arm
will dig a trench into the surface near the lander to
collect and deliver samples to on-board chemistry and
mineralogy experiments. These experiments will allow the
detection of the mineral makeup of the soil as well as its
water content, pH, salt content, and organic content.

An important aspect of this exciting mission is the
selection of the landing site, within the 65-72 deg N
latitude band. Both science and safety concerns will play
into this selection. Work is ongoing to determine the most
favorable location, with consideration focusing on the best
ice/soil ratio, the shallowest slopes and fewest large
rocks. Current sites under consideration will be discussed.

Selected in 2003, Phoenix was recently confirmed to proceed
into Phase C/D of spacecraft development.

This research was funded by a NASA Grant and carried out by
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of
Technology.

If you would like more information about this abstract, please
follow the link to http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/.
This link was provided by the
author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this
meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your
browser.